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Monday, May 31, 2010

I just finished writing a 1500 word scene analysis from this great short animation.I find the timing, design and confidence with posing and limited animation amazing.

I've recorded my dialogue with my house mate for my long dialogue animation. My uni has a pretty wicked professional recording booth set-up. Makes me have aspirations to be swearing at Robyn Williams through the glass as he acts like an idiot for my animated films.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

I've been looking around for a way to do this for some time and last night I stumbled upon a pretty great working method. It's great in how simple and straight forward it is.

What you will need:Photoshop (or any image creation program I assume)

1. Create a very small blank image in photoshop (for this example I'll use 40x40 pixels)

2. Zoom right in and draw your image at the pixel level. I would suggest using the Pencil tool at 1 pixel diameter for the best results. Also use the eraser in pencil 1 pixel mode. And turn Anti-alias off the paint bucket! If you want to create a sprite or an image with transparencies be sure not to do it on the background layer.3. Then it is as simple as going to Image>Image Size and change the width and height to something large, ie 1024x1024 and set the bottom drop down menu to "Nearest Neighbor"

4. Now just save out an image version, I recommend .PNG to preserve alpha (provided it's on a clear background) AND BAM. Magic does happen, and it has happened. Right here, for you. Your magic. You are now a wizard. A pixel wizard. Congratulations.Click to see it in full resolution GLORY!

So my pixel documentary has done really well! I'm super surprised it's travelled about the internet the way it has and want to say a huge thanks to everyone who posted it, watched it and gave feedback. Most people have been incredibly positive which I really didn't expect. The feedback also informed me of a few really silly date mistakes I made. I could re export a fixed copy but I'm real lazy and instead updated it with youtube annotations. Maybe I will fix it up properly later.

I've been getting a few very interesting emails from people who saw it. One of them was from http://tshirt123.com/, who convinced me to try my hand at making some Pixel Art tees! So over the next week I hope to make at least 5 or so decent designs to put up for sale. I've always wanted to try this out and this was a great motivation.I have no idea if it will go anywhere, but I sure could do with some kind of income, being a full time uni student with no job!Here is a sample of one. I've been playing heaps of Red Dead Redemption... SO GOOD.Remember how good Dino Riders was?!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

I have a really great character acting class, where we do fairly basic animation exercises, such as inbetweening, breakdowns, facial acting and full body. I threw them together in this video.This stuff is the not so good and the ugly! Don't expect much. None of these characters are my own. Well maybe the dialogue ones.

I'm also almost finished my documentary. It's running at around 11 minutes, which is the longest video I've ever done. I think it's flowing pretty well with some cool chiptune music.I might try finish it today!The real problem in my work life is currently Red Dead Redemption coming out friday. Oh damn...

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Hey look! A big ol story board.I hope this is achievable, my teach had some concerns about how large it is, but I think I can just power through it soon. Need to record my dialogue soon.SPEAKING of recording:I've now recorded all my interviews for my documentary and started editing through them. I got some really interesting stuff out of it, such as a 30 minute talk with Jason Rohrer!Oh and I just entered in a little comp to win a new graphics card, to enter you had to say why you deserve the card. Here is my entry:

Thursday, May 13, 2010

It's very late and I'm at uni and all the computer labs are empty. There are 2 reasons I am here right now. 1. I need to produce a spaz amount of art for a pre production pack due on Friday. 2. I am interviewing Jason Rohrer over Skype at 3:30 am for my Pixel doco and need to kill time.Hey look! Spike and Mudley turn arounds! I always have so much trouble with the side views and I was going crazy singing total eclipse of the heart the whole time I was drawing.Mouth shapes and EVERYTHING! (You may notice I cheated with the mouth shapes... CTRL+C(ity)... YEAH SO WHAT!? I TOOK A SHORTCUT! LITERALLY!)I did a buncha other boring art. But it is... boring.

Monday, May 10, 2010

2 very short animation exercises (neither of these characters are my own).A breakdown and inbetweening clip. I also learnt how to "Boil" properly. Boiling is when you hold a pose or a frame, but keep the line work wobbling so it is always energetic.What you want to do is redraw the held frame 3-4 times then cycle it. A cycle of 2 just looks glitchy.

and a "take"/"reaction"

These were from my very cool Character Acting class taught by Joe Brumm who has worked on Charlie and Lola and all kinds of neat cut out style kids shows.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

For this assignment we needed to create at least 15 key frames for a little sequence. I added some extra stuff in there and in some cases a few breakdown drawings. The reason it's very stop start is because it was the criteria! I SWEAR IT! Smooth animation is super tedious anyway.I'm now starting to work on my dialogue sequence, which will depict Mudley getting all up in Spike's grill in the middle of a drug bust.

Friday, May 7, 2010

It's currently pretty busy with uni work at the moment. I've started to get in contact with some Pixel artists to interview for my Pixel Art documentary video. I also have 2 new dialogue sequences to do for uni.Here are some rough key poses of my Character Spike.Click to see them BIIIIG. There will be a video of this finished on Monday.For my 3rd and final year animation piece I am seriously considering making a Spike and Mudley: Crime Police short animated film. I've been developing and writing for the characters a lot recently.I'm very subject to change though.What a boring update.